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Flight Lieutenant Brand
In the short story The Case of the Secret Aerofoil, Flight Lieutenant Brand was a test pilot at the "Experiment Establishment" (probably the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down). While out testing a "Crane", he had apparently crashed into some trees in the course of a forced landing and died. The crashhad been noted by some farm labourers who summoned an ambulance. Brand was taken to hospital but died of his wounds shortly thereafter. Before expiring, he had regained consciousness briefly and muttered something about a "new Persian" to the doctor. As the Crane was a prototype aircraft equipped for testing an experimental secret aerofoil design, Gaskin who was investigating, called on Biggles for technical assistance. Certain facts did not add up. The Crane had an endurance of 3 hours but the crash took place 4 hours after he took off. A pilot of Brand's experience would not have botched a forced landing. Brand had died from a fractured skull from a blow to the back of the head whereas pilots in an air crash of this sort typically injured their faces. Moreover, Biggles found the throttle of the Crane open whereas Brand would have closed it just before the crash to avoid the risk of fire. Biggles surmised that Brand had been murdered and the murkderer had landed the body in the field, and then opened the throttle and ran the aircraft into the trees to fake a crash. From Brand's superior, Group Captain Kidby, Biggles and Gaskin learnt that Brand had a fiancee, Storna Buchner, supposedly a Hungarian refugee, who lived with her brother at Overstone Manor, a large house some eight or nine miles from the Experimental Establishment. Kidby also agreed that Brand might well done practice forced landings at her house. This was not something he frowned on as part of Brand's test protocols involved making difficult forced landings to test the capabilities of the new aerofoil. Flying over Overstone Manor, Biggles detected wheel tracks, confirming that Brand had in fact landed there. After landing, Biggles and Gaskin met a Blue Persian cat, allowing Biggles to make the link to the "Persian" Brand had talked about before dying. They reached the house just in time to see Storna Buchner attempting to leave with a small packet. Gaskin promptly arrested her and her brother. Evidence in the house proved that Storna and her "brother" (actually her husband) were in fact enemy agents whose mission was to obtain intelligence of new developments at the Experimental Establishment. How Brand came to be murdered was never known but it was surmised that Brnad had flown to see Storna that day. While she distracted him, the male Buchner, her husband, had photographed the new aerofoil on the aircraft parked outside. Brand might have returned and caught him at it whereupon Buchner had knocked him out. The Persian cat might have been the last thing he saw before becoming unconscious. Evidence in the house showed that Buchner was also a qualified pilot and he may have flown the body out and then faked the crash. Category:People Category:Biggles characters Category:Air Police era characters